Currently, proposed dental appliances or restorations are visualized by either trying in a replica of the restoration in the mouth of a subject, or by including 2D images of the subject in dental designer software. Examples include Densply's TruRx software for denture designs (see also United States Publication No. 2010/0076581) and 2D image arrangement from 3Shape for use on individuals with teeth (see also United States Publication No. 2013/0218530).
Densply's TruRx method is a commercially-available solution for digital modeling of a subject. This method involves placing reference indicia on the face of the subject, positioning a mouth shield to cover at least cover a portion of a subject's teeth thereby creating a voided area in the following digital photograph of the subject's face. The software uses the reference indicia size in the photograph to compare dimensions of the subject's face. The voided area is identified in the software and the selected materials and structures for making the denture are superimposed on the voided area of the digital image so that a practitioner or the subject can see the results of what the subject may look like with the selected combination.